Pinboard — Antisocial Bookmarking

Remember when Delicious was simple and focused? So does Maciej Ceglowski. Pinboard, his new “antisocial” bookmarking site, hearkens back to Delicious’s early heyday. It even offers a way to import your bookmarks from Delicious.

In addition to the fact that Pinboard itself is promising and clever, Ceglowski has implemented a genius feature on the sign-up page: you must pay a small one-time fee to create a new account:

The signup fee helps discourage spammers and defrays some of the costs of running the site.

The fee is based on the formula (number of users * $0.001), so the earlier you join, the less you pay.

As I type this, the fee is $2.91; when I joined four days ago, it was $2.33. This is brilliant.

Update: 16 hours later and it’s now up to $4.33

★ Monday, 13 July 2009